More than 15 years after it was first opened to the public following its discovery, the cave remains at risk due to crevices on either side and a large stretch of hollow surface. “The buildings and highway above the cave have compounded the threat,” geologist Dr Krishna KC believes.
Surprisingly, Pokhara Sub Metropolitan City is blissfully unaware of the gravity of the situation. “We have not been informed that there is any danger due to constructions above the cave. I will now initiate discussions regarding that”, executive head of the sub-metropolis Madan Bhujel assures.
The cave management committee maintains that there is no danger as the terrain is rocky, but KC, who teaches geography at Prithvi Narayan Campus, warns that if the situation is not managed properly, it will invite a great disaster.
“Thanks to the strong rocky foundations of the cave there is no such threat as portrayed by some,” cave management committee chairman Khaga Raj Sharma Acharya says. “But we have removed some houses in the past few years as a precautionary measure,” he adds.
The cave management committee removed two houses in 2003 and four more in 2006 but has not been able to remove any more due to financial constraints. “We gave Rs 6,000,000 in compensation then but due to rising land prices we are not in a position to pay compensation for 13 more houses,” Acharya says.
The committee has a Rs 50 million masterplan for clearing all constructions from the location and properly managing the area around the cave, but it has not been implemented for lack of a budget.
The 2.95 km-long cave, that was first opened to the public on May 30, 1993, is considered the longest in South Asia but only 140 meters of it is open to the public due to security reasons. The cave has around 300 domestic and foreign visitors daily with double that number on Saturdays. Around 210,000 visitors including 57,000 foreigners turned up to see the cave last fiscal year.
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